The 2001 ETA season finally comes to an end at the year ending and prestigious Sanex Championships. The $3 million dollar event held in Munich, Germany, gathers only the top 16 singles and the top 8 doubles teams to battle it out at OlympiaPark. Defending champion Martina Hingis headlines the singles competitors at No. 2. World No. 1 Tamarine Tanasugarn, Pilot Pen Champion and No. 3 Justine Henin, and No. 4 and Swisscom Challenge Champion Anke Huber round out the top 4 seeds. Elena Manevska, the Toyota Princess Cup Champion, Mary Pierce, the AIG Japan Open Tennis Champion, Venus Williams, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Finalist, and Swisscom Challenge and US Open Semifinalist Magdalena Maleeva, make up the top 8 seeds.<br /><center><br /><br /></center><br />The other 8 players in the field are Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Jelena Dokic, Kimiko Date, Iroda Tulyaganova, Petra Mandula, Barbara Schett, and Evonne Goolagong. Out of the 16 players in the draw, Kimiko Date and Iroda Tulyaganova are currently on form as both players reached at least the semifinals to clinch a spot in this prestigious tournament.<br /><center><br /><br /></center><br />The local German fans have lots to cheer about with three players competing in the singles event. No. 4 Anke Huber is the highest ranked player followed by No. 9 Steffi Graf, and No. 15 Barbara Schett. In addition both Steffi Graf and Barbara Schett will play in the doubles event as well. Graf and Schett join Tanasugarn, Manevska, and Mandula, and Goolagong as the only players to qualify for both the singles and doubles event. <br /><center><br /><br /></center><br />The doubles championships feature the newly top ranked team of Davenport/Zvereva, who are coming off their first ETA doubles title in Luxembourg. Following at No. 2 are Mandula/Schnyder the reigning US Open Doubles Champions. Pierce/Sabatini are the No. 3 seeds with a pair of doubles titles at the Toyota Princess Cup and the Eurotel Slovak Indoor. Completing the top 4 seeds are Myskina/Novotna who are the Swisscom Challenge Doubles Champions.<br /><center><br /><br /></center><br />The other 4 teams are Goolagong/McQuillan, Graf/Manevska, Fernandez/Tanasugarn, Schett/S Williams. Though the favorites look to be Goolagong/McQuillan who have strung together at least three semifinal appearances in their last three outings. <br /><center><br /><br /></center><br />All of the players and teams will be fighting to win this trophy, the Billie Jean King Trophy.<br /><center><br /> <br /></center><br />The Billie-Jean-King-Trophy will be awarded for the fourth time at the Sanex Championships, the ladies' tennis world championships. The trophy was donated in 1998 by Billie Jean King, one of the founders and first President of the Virginia Slims Circuit, predecessor to the Sanex WTA Tour. In her year-long career as tennis professional, the 57-year-old Billie Jean King won a total of 67 tournaments, gathering 12 single and 16 doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments and for several years took the No.1 spot in the world rankings. Due to her historic merits in women's tennis, in 1998, the US American earned an official position in the WTA Tour's Player Development Program. The Billie-Jean-King-Trophy was produced by the renown jeweller Tiffany.

It's not shyness I have. It's just that I'm not one of those people who loves to open a newspaper of magazine and see myself all the time. I don't like that at all. I prefer to play my tennis which I love, and with which I've been blessed.LINDSAY DAVENPORT

Hello everyone, I am trying to help out Tennisace by making these pictures of the Sanex doubles teams. Feel free to use them in your interview/match result threads, as they will remain on my site indefinately. Now I could not find any pictures of Elena Manevska, so if anybody has one, post it in this thread and I will splice it with a Steffi picture ... Good luck everyone. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

big lindsay - could you please try and post that pic of cris fernandez again. it didnt show up. thanks <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

It's not shyness I have. It's just that I'm not one of those people who loves to open a newspaper of magazine and see myself all the time. I don't like that at all. I prefer to play my tennis which I love, and with which I've been blessed.LINDSAY DAVENPORT